Santa Clara County To Require Registration Of Large Supplies Of PPE

If you or a business you own is based in Santa Clara County and you’ve been saving up supplies of personal protective equipment, you are now required to report them to the county Health Department. That also goes for any ventilators, even if they don’t work.

The order is unlikely to apply to most Santa Clara County locals, but those who do have large quantities of PPE are required to report them online. In this case, examples of ‘large’ quantities of equipment are considered over 100 safety goggles or 500 masks.

“We can’t rely solely on our state and federal government,” said head of the hospital surge capacity team Jennifer Tong, “we really have to turn locally to see what capacity for inventory exists here in our county.”

The county is taking stock, not compelling donations, though those are welcome. County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody is pleased with the results of early action.

“If you take action early you can prevent cases, but early action is also extraordinarily disruptive as we’ve experienced,” said Cody, “but if you wait and take action later, you get the same social and economic disruption, but you don’t get as much benefit.”

But Cody warns residents are likely to be at home for a while.

“This incident is a marathon, maybe even an ultra-marathon,” said Cody, “it’s gonna be a while.”